Dunny Do Dunny Don’t… Bush Toilet Etiquette

Bush Toilet Etiquette

OMG – if toilet paper waving in a gentle outback breeze were a metaphor for staking a claim it would be one hell of a gold rush… I shit you not! It seems bush toilet etiquette has gone AWOL!

Last year 4700+ cars crossed the Simpson Desert. Let’s say 2 peeps per car toileting twice a day each… that’s in the region of 10,000lts of urine and as far as crap goes… well you can crunch those numbers for yourself.

What’s disappointing is the bog roll – streaming shit paper from end of the desert to the other.
It makes for unsightly campsites and I for one am not interested in where ya did ya business… in fact I’d rather not know and I’m positive that goes for most other campers… so leaving your poo flag at the site of your poo business is just plain bad etiquette.

No. 1s

Fellas, I know one of the benefits and attraction of having a willy is that you can just whip it out anywhere and wiz away to your heart’s content but when you’re camped up in a popular spot where people will come long after you’re gone have a little heart.

This might sound pedantic but pee in the same area and at least 50m away from the campsite doing your best to avoid plants and trees.

And if you want to be really nice don’t be afraid to spread some water around to dilute the odour!

Know this phrase? “Stinks like cat’s piss” – Sadly… you are not exempt 🙄

Ladies – I cannot prove it, but strongly suspect and the evidence is indicative, when it comes to streaming toilet paper across our beautiful desert landscape, that you maybe the majority culprit. So if you do not have the smarts to safely burn it where it lays, you just gonna have to go pee with a rubbish bag. So instead of just wiping n dropping, wipe n drop into a rubbish bag… I swear, you will barely notice a difference in hand-eye coordination 😉

The good news is, according to World Health Organization and CDC research, with most healthy people, urine is not a big deal and generally harmless on the environment.”

No. 2s

Digging a poo hole and burying your business is the most common waste disposal method in the outback; unlike Antarctica which as very specific pack-it-out rules. 😳

When the rules for choosing a site and digging a poo hole are followed precisely there are many advantages.
💡 Dig poo holes at least 30cm deep
💡 Keep them 150m from water sources, tracks, and campsites.
💡 Poo holes are generally easy to dig and easy to disguise afterward.
💡 They’re private and it’s easy to select a remote location other campers won’t stumble across you in the middle of your business; or after you’ve gone.
💡 They disperse waste and enhance decomposition.

Your poo hole site will be ideally near thick underbrush, decaying logs or places other campers aren’t likely to encounter it, and in organic soil to facilitate decomposition. Once you’ve taken care of business, burn your poo ticket, fill the hole in and disguised with ground material.

The joy of turning up to a desert campsite free from shit paper and other rubbish – now that’s a bucket list item 🙂